Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton,
the official podcast of Cross -Christian Fellowship,
Route 66, in the heart of Albuquerque, New Mexico,
where Burton is the lead pastor. We're glad you're
here. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this
day. We thank you for this time of fellowship,
this time of worship, and a chance to praise
your name and grow in you. We have a lot of people
hurting here. physically, spiritually, emotionally.
We lift them all up to you as you are a great
physician, and we ask for your healing, your
peace that surpasses all understanding, and your
guidance as everybody goes through the healing
that they need to go through in Jesus' name.
Amen. You know, the last few weeks, we've been
all over the place. We've had Mother's Day. We've
had Father's Day. We've got Fourth of July coming
up. We've got people traveling. As a matter of
fact, the test was just in Florida. for a convention
of sorts, right? Brian is getting ready to leave
here in a couple weeks. As a matter of fact,
I believe I'm going to be gone that same week
because I'll be in North Carolina. So there's
a lot of people doing a lot of things. There's
a lot of moving parts. So summer's good. So definitely
in your time of prayer at home, keep everybody
in there, especially on the road. We have a lot
of people who work on the road. As well, so,
you know, safety, travel mercies are definitely
needed aplenty. All right? So definitely keep
all that in mind. You know, I always like to
say to pray for Albuquerque when you're on the
road anyway, just because we consistently rank
in the top ten most dangerous places to drive
in the U .S. We're usually around four to six.
Sometimes we go up a little higher, unfortunately.
But this Albuquerque, I guess we're used to it.
I don't know. But with that said, we're going
to get into our subject matter here real quick.
We're actually going to be spending some time
over the next few weeks in the book of Malachi.
So for those of you who like to go ahead and
flip ahead in your apps, your Bibles and everything,
go ahead and turn to Malachi chapter 1. And we're
going to be looking at a number of things, not
all of it today, of course, but as we go through
the next few weeks, a lot of things such as looking
at people and confronting them in their sin,
helping them to restore their relationship with
God are really the fundamentals that we go through
and then approaching him with a full heart, not
approaching him half -heartedly. All right? So
like I said, keep in mind, we're not going to
go through all of it today. We don't have the
time, nor do I want to create a hostage situation.
I know some of you all want to get to lunch at
a reasonable time. But chronologically, we're
going to go through, we're going to see sinful
priest, which is actually what we're going to
spend most of today looking at. and sinful people.
And then finally, we're going to get to the faithful
few. And all throughout this, we're going to
see the theme of God's love and forgiveness that
surpasses everything. And in fact, it's because
of His love and our relationship with Him that
we have to confront people in their sin and call
them out on it. As we go through, it's important
to keep in mind that You know, we all do things
that hurt relationships. We don't necessarily
intend to. Sometimes we do, though, right? Sometimes
we lash out. We're kind of hurtful, a little
spiteful, you know? But we do things. And unfortunately,
when we do these things, it's what, you know,
we burn bridges, right? And sometimes these relationships
take a lengthy time to repair, if they can be
repaired at all. I can use my little brother
as an example. He and my father were very estranged
for a very, very long time. And unfortunately,
they never fully got to heal that bridge before
he passed away. You know, he said for years and
years and years, oh, I'm going to change my name.
I'm going to change my name. I don't want to
go buy it. It was very bitter. You know, so things
happen. You know, and also, you know, sometimes
we take people for granted, don't we? We have
them. They're there all the time. We kind of
take it for granted. Oh, I'll see you tomorrow.
Then something happens and that relationship
becomes strained or goes away altogether. You
know, we say hurtful things. We break promises.
We let people down. You know, but it doesn't,
whether it's intentional or not, it doesn't negate
the harm that is caused. The harm is already
there. The damage is done. However, you know,
God's love is perfect. It's complete. He's able
to forgive us. And it's actually a lot easier
for him to forgive us sometimes than it is for
us to forgive other people or even forgive ourselves.
A lot of us like to hold on to that sin and carry
it around as though it's our burden to carry,
our cross to bury, right? But it's not. We need
to live more like God. We need to be godly people
living in a characteristic life of God, which
is love and action. It's not just those empty,
hollow words, but the things that we do, the
things that we say, the way we treat people.
And we see it in God and his giving and his guarding
and protecting and guiding each and every one
of us throughout our lives, every day when we're
on our path. So again, we're going to go into
Malachi chapter 1. And as everybody's opening
to it, I'm going to give you some background
here. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament.
It's the last one. So if you're not sure where
it is, go to the middle of your Bible. Boom,
there it is. And this book was written around
430 B .C. While the previous prophets, Haggai
and Zechariah, rebuked people for their failure
to rebuild the temple, Malachi is actually confronting
a couple of other things. One, the people's neglect
of the temple, and two, their false and profane
worship at this particular point. The temple
itself had actually been rebuilt. It had been
rebuilt for a while. People's ability to go and
worship had been re -implemented. They'd been
able to go for quite some time, but they didn't.
For them, it was very humdrum. It had become
something that they did because they had to do
it. It was very legalistic, all right, which
is not the way to do it. You know, their enthusiasm
for going to worship or wanting to go to church,
their fire for the Lord had fizzled out. You
know, and a big part of it was because, you know,
especially when we go through the Old Testament,
we see a lot of prophecies, and a lot of those
prophecies being fulfilled, right? A lot of miracles
are already at play. And at this point, they've
kind of simmered down a bit, or at least for
what people recognized. So they're like, okay,
maybe God forgot about us. They took him for
granted. And a lot of people, they're still practicing
the same sin that had brought around the downfall
of Jerusalem around 586 B .C. I'll remind you,
the number's B .C. We go from big to small. You
know, it's A .D. that we go from small to big.
Sometimes people forget, that's why I throw it
out there, right? Malachi, he was confronting
the sins of hypocrites by presenting a rather
graphic dialogue between God and those people
whose hearts had hardened, right? So with that
said, we're going to go ahead, we're going to
jump into the first part of Malachi. Malachi
1, verses 1 through 5. And the Word says, The
burden of the Word... of the Lord of Israel to
Malachi, I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet
you say, in what way have you loved us? Was not
Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord? Yet Jacob
I have loved, but Esau I have hated, and laid
waste to his mountains and his heritage for the
jackals of the wilderness. Even though Edom has
said we have been impoverished, but we will...
return and build the desolate places. Thus says
the Lord of hosts, that may build, but I will
throw down. They shall be called the territory
of the wickedness and the people against whom
the Lord will have indignation forever. For your
eyes shall see and you shall say the Lord is
magnified beyond the border of Israel. So right
out the gate, God's reminding people the many
ways he's... He's already shown his love to them,
right? So remember, love is an action. It's not
just, oh, I love you, bye. It's in how we treat
people. It's the things that we do. So he's reminding
them, you know, and how he had chosen Jacob and
his descendants to be the nation he would use
to bless the world. He had a special place in
his heart for them, right? You know, people talk
about that, everything that's going on in Israel
right now. They're like, oh, the promised land,
right? God's people and everything. There's a
reason why people talk about it to this day that
way. Because God had a heart for these people.
You know, it could have been Esau that he had
blessed as opposed to Jacob. But Esau had rejected
his birthright and the blessing of the person
God was making his covenant through, right? Covenant
being a promise. So Esau's like, no, uh -uh,
bye. So God turned to Jacob, and Jacob accepted.
You know, and God's very first message here is,
I have loved you. It's like I've loved you. But
you don't respect me. You know, this message,
while in itself was originally intended for Israel,
it's become a beacon of hope. For everybody,
for all nations, right? The entire world, for
all time. You know, here in the U .S., we're
very patriotic. Yes, we should. We should love
our own land. We should love where we're from.
Like, oh, we're the U .S. We're the best, right?
But we need to remember, especially as Christians,
we belong to a bigger kingdom. We live here now,
but as Christians, we belong to the kingdom of
God, which is much higher, what we should be
representing. Right? When people turn to the
cross and they see, people see the cross, much
like they see our flag. What do the people see
when they see our flag? Hope. When people look
to the cross, what do they see? Hope. Love. As
it should be. The things that we embody as our
character as a nation. Right? One nation under
God. Something too many of us have gotten away
from. You know, but again, you know, God, he
wants everyone to come to him, not just a select
few, not just like Israel. He wants everybody
to come to him willingly because they want to.
That's why we've been given the choice to choose
him or to choose the world. Right? And that's
really the only two choices that are there. Choose
God or choose the world. Which is more important
to you? You know, sadly today people become cynical.
They use the actions of other people as their
measuring stick. Things like economic troubles,
politics. However, because we see so much rampant
corruption in government and other areas, the
economy up and down and all over the place, right?
People turning towards other people and away
from God. It's like, oh, this guy can fix it.
Oh, let's go to the mayor. Let's go to the governor.
Let's go to the president. These guys can fix
it all. No, they can't. Some people cheer for
them and other people are furious with them.
Why? Because they're men. They get some things
right. They get some things wrong. None of them
is infallible. Not one. But they're put up on
this pedestal. The pedestal God should be on
because they're not up here. They're actually
down here because we forget they're supposed
to work for us. But we don't hold them accountable
to that. We give them free reign to just do whatever
instead of representing the people they're elected
to. Right? Absolute power absolutely corrupts.
We've all heard that. And it's true. You know,
people fail to see that these failures stem because
ungodly people that they put so much value in.
But we need to look to God to fix things, not
expect a bunch of paid liars. We look at a lot
of these people and their empty promises. Think
back when we were in school, right? People running
for student council and everything. Oh, I'm going
to get more vending machines. We're going to
have better food in the cafeteria, right? Yeah,
we're going to have more time between classes.
Even today, these are still a lot of the same
promises that people like to echo, right? It's
just they change as we get older into other things.
It's the same stuff, nothing that they can actually
follow through on, but it's the same hollow,
empty things. It was like, oh, yes, that sounds
great. Vote for this dude. But does it ever come?
No. And sometimes things do come, but not the
way people expect it or from the person they
expect, and then they become very venomous because
of it, right? It's like, no, it's supposed to
be him. Why are you doing it? Why are you doing
it that way? You know, we see it here in Albuquerque.
You look at our crime, right, and our homeless
situation. And it hasn't gotten any better. If
anything, it's actually gotten worse, hasn't
it? And it starts all the way at the top and
works its way all the way down. But we keep voting
for the same kind of people because we hold so
much value in a title or a party. You know, we
keep putting the same people in their cohorts
there without the accountability, and we expect
them to fix things. Like I said, we should be
turning to God. God is the only one who can fix
things. And in his word, he told us it's going
to get worse before it gets better. Because that's
sin in the world. It's also because we have the
choice. We have the choice. He doesn't want robots.
He doesn't want a bunch of mindless minions just
bebopping around like a bunch of dodo birds.
Right? What happened to them? They went away.
They're extinct, right? He doesn't want that
for us. So he's given us a choice. come to me,
look out for yourself and your fellow man, love
one another like I've loved you, or go the way
of the world and to heck with all of them, right?
Take on that mentality. In the Marine Corps,
we say, semper ai, to heck with the other guy.
Only to heck is not the word we would use. We'd
use a lot more colorful words than that. But
that is the mentality of the world, is it not?
It's all about me. To heck with you. How's it
benefit me? What's in it for me? Nothing? Bye.
See ya. It's not the way it's supposed to be,
though. People confuse this, and they become
very legalistic. Oh, I did all these things.
Why won't God give me what I want? Why isn't
God there for me because I want all this? I did
this, I did this, I did this, I did that. Well,
it's a very simple reason. It's because it's
not about you. You did all this stuff with the
expectation of something in return. It wasn't
supposed to be that way. It's not about you.
It's about God. We're here to support God, not
the other way around. We don't get to do things
and try to use it as a bargaining chip, right?
And we'll do that stuff, even in our own lives.
We like to do stuff and be like, hey, I did this
for you. I scratched your back. Why don't you
scratch my back? It's like, really? I don't remember
agreeing to this. It's like, that's your job,
isn't it? You're supposed to do that. Why are
we negotiating about you doing your job? But
it happens. You know, we also forget, you know,
like the song goes, sometimes unanswered prayers
is an answer in itself, right? Some consecrated
gifts are unanswered prayers. There we go. There's
the song. If you don't listen to country, you
probably don't know it. It's okay. But an unanswered
prayer in itself is an answer. Why? Because God
has better things in store for us. He knows what
we need before we even ask. Sometimes he's saying,
hey, you need to do without this for right now
because all the way down here, you're going to
get something even better. There's something
better in store for you. And for those of us
who believe, When we die, where do we go? We
go to heaven. Where's our ultimate treasure stored?
In heaven. Not here. But that's the thing. Our
flesh wants to be here. Our flesh, which is what
we're always in battle with, says, hey, I want
this. I want the alcohol. I want the drugs. I
want the gambling. I want the pornography. And
all this other stuff, right? I want the latest
car. I want the biggest house. I want the fashion
trend, right? Give it all to me. And we are constantly
at war with ourselves. Why? Because it's the
flesh. And that's why the Bible refers to it
as the flesh. The flesh doesn't care that our
treasure is stored up in heaven. Why? Because
our flesh is not going with us. It's going to
stay here and it's going to turn back to dust
and poof, be gone. While we are in heaven with
our new bodies for eternity. That's why our soul
finds happiness in the Lord. So again, it's not
about us. It's about... Him. Now for this next
part, we're going to read through quite a bit.
I promise there's a reason for it. We're going
to go through the rest of this chapter, really
verses 6 through 14. So let's pick back up in
our reading here, Malachi 1, verses 6 through
14. I'll try to stay on top of the slides as
we go. The word says, a son honors his father
and his servant, his master. If then I am the
father, Where's my honor? And if I am a master,
where is my reverence, says the Lord of hosts,
to you priests who despise my name? Yet you say,
in what way have we despised your name? You offer
defiled food on my altar, but say, in what way
have we defiled you? By saying, the table of
the Lord is contemptible. And when you offer
the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And
when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?
Offer it to the governor. Would he be pleased
with you? Would he accept you favorably? Says
the Lord of hosts. But now entreat God's favor,
that he may be gracious to us while... This is
being done by your hands. He will accept you
favorably, says the Lord of hosts. Who is there
even among you who would shut doors so that you
would not rekindle fire, so that you would not
kindle fire on my altar in vain? I have no pleasure
in you. Lost my place here. Sorry, guys. It says,
Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering
from your hands. For from the rising sun, even
to its going down, my name shall be great among
the Gentiles. In every place, incense shall be
offered to my name, and a pure offering for my
name shall be great among the nations, says the
Lord of hosts. But you profane it. And that you
say, the table of the Lord is defiled and its
food is contemptible. You also say, oh, what
weariness. And you sneer at it, says the Lord
of hosts. And you bring the stolen, the lame,
and the sick. Let me repeat that. And you bring
the stolen, the lame, and the sick. Thus you
bring an offering. Should I accept this from
your hand, says the Lord? But cursed be the deceiver
who has a flock, has his flock, a male, and takes
a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.
For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts,
and my name is to be feared among the nations.
I know it's a lot. I know it is. We're going
to unpack it fairly fast, though, for time's
sake. You know, God, he's calling out the priest
here, right? And thereby, he's calling out the
people. Because they're all involved. They're
all doing the same thing. And it's not just the
fact that they're failing to honor him. It's
actually worse because they're showing contempt.
They're showing contempt here. They're not honoring
him. The temple had been rebuilt 515 B .C. Worship
had been restored. And the very people who should
have been leading worship, teaching people what's
right, this is the way we do things, this is
why we do things, they were in it half -heartedly.
They weren't following through. They weren't
doing their job. Even for them, it would become
very humdrum. It's like, oh, man, do I have to?
Right? Think of it this way. Church, right? Church
services. Especially as a kid. Hey, we're going
to church. Oh, man, really? Do I have to? Come
on. I want to sleep. I want to sleep. No, get
in the car. We're going. Right? Get dressed.
And you went because you had to. You didn't enjoy
it. You didn't want to be there. But you did
it because you had to. And that's why I brought
up my government, because it starts at leadership.
And we saw it right here. The priest, the teachers,
the leaders, the very people who should have
been teaching people. They themselves didn't
even want to be there. Like, oh, man, I want
to sleep in. There's a sheep out there. I want
to go slaughter it and have some lamb for dinner.
I got better things on my plate than sit here
with you. But that's the attitude they had. And
when people have that attitude, right, people
recognize it. People comes down. You go into
a room. You have one friend. They're always chipper.
They're very upbeat, right? They come into a
room. And the room lights up, right? Like, oh,
look who's here. And they're excited. We all
have friends like that. We all have coworkers
like that. And then you have your other friend
who comes in. They're like, Eeyore. Nobody loves
me. I'm okay, I guess. How do people respond
to that? It's like, oh, geez. Look who walked
through the door. Maybe if we don't talk to them.
Just leave them over there. It's going to be
okay. Yeah. Oh, hey, here he comes. Hi. How are
you doing? Nobody wants to be around that dude,
right? Nobody does. It's the same way here. So
it starts at leadership and it worked its way
down because people were actually seeing this
in play and the place that they should go to
work on their relationship and come to know God
and what God expects. But it was half -hearted.
At best. I should say half -hearted at best.
Because for some people, their heart wasn't in
it at all. It was just what they did. It was
their job, right? We all know the job versus
work. Yeah, I see the heads nodding. You know,
the Lord should have been first in their lives.
And we're talking about priests here, right?
The ministers of the day. Their heart. First
and foremost, beyond anybody, their heart should
have been it. They should have been excited,
like, hey, welcome. Guess what we're going to
talk about today? You're going to love this.
To the point it could have been infectious. But
they didn't want to do it. They said become very
legalistic. And it stems much beyond that, even
in our giving. In our giving. And I'm not just
talking financially. Because we give in a number
of ways, right? We give of our time. We give
of our resources. We give of a lot of things,
right? This week we have the youth visit, right?
Yeah, that in itself. That is a lot of time and
a lot of effort, is it not? It can be. It absolutely
can be. Especially when you're trying to get
something together. You know, for like a big
event for like a holiday or something like that,
right? Logistics involved in everything. But
does it seem so burdensome because you want to
do it? No. If it's something that you had to
do and that was the only reason you did it, though,
it would seem very burdensome, wouldn't it? But
every couple weeks we have this, and I know Molly
likes going. It's a passion for her. She loves
it. Mike loves going. Tess loves going when she
can go. It's not a burden. We enjoy it. I have
to go watch a golf game. It's a burden. Someone
says, let's watch hockey. Let's do it. I don't
care if it's on the TV, right? We all have things
like this in our lives. So when we give, it should
be something that we want to do, not something
that we have to do. It should be something we
get excited for, something that we're passionate
about, something that we love. We look forward
to it. It's like, oh, hey, I get to do this.
You know, sometimes we have to wrap our minds
like, eh, I don't know. Oh, wait, no, I get to
do this. Right? Tess and I, we'll throw this
around the house every so often. So we'll sit
there and we'll kind of get in a little rut.
No, I get to do this. I get this. It's going
to be a good thing. And it's always a good thing.
You know, and we have to be wanting to. That's
the key. We can't allow something to become something
that we do just because we have to. And what
we're seeing here, you know, it's talking about
animal sacrifice. Thank the Lord we don't have
to sacrifice animals anymore, right? No one would
look forward to that. But we still make sacrifices
of other things. And here, it's talking about
animal sacrifice. Why? Because the animals, they
had to be top shelf, essentially, right? The
best of the best. But instead, people were taking
things that they stole, sick, The lame, the crippled,
the dying, instead of the best of the best, they're
taking the worst of the worst. And the whole
thing here, when it came to animal sacrifice,
it was an example before Jesus came of the perfect
lamb, right? The lamb that came and shed his
blood for our sin and our transgression so we
could be reunited with God. That's what these
sacrifices were about. But people took it for
granted. Oh, man. It's like, do you know how
much this sheep is worth? This ram? It's like,
do I really have to do this? This is ridiculous.
Because people didn't understand. Why? Because
they had people teaching them who didn't teach
the way they should and took it for granted themselves.
You know, the priests themselves. And when something
good comes, oh, no, no, no, no. Here, we're going
to keep this one over here. You take this one.
We're going to sacrifice this. That one's going
to be a tasty soup later. Right? That's what
it was. You know? I've been thinking it this
way. Anybody in here, when you get a gift, do
you want someone's dirty, nasty, old, used -up
underwear? Their crusty socks with holes? Right?
Their shirt with a bunch of holes in it and stains?
Nobody? No. It was not owned by someone famous.
No. That's horrible. It's not Hendrix's. No.
That's horrible. Okay. How about this? Who in
here would be excited if somebody said, hey,
I brought you a puppy, and the puppy was dead?
Nobody? Nobody would be like, oh, sweet, it's
a dead dog. I don't even have to feed it. I don't
have to walk it. I don't have to scrape poop.
This is great. No? But that's how people were
treating God with their sacrifices. That's how
we still treat Him today. We go half -heartedly.
But we don't think about it that way. It's like,
oh, I've got to do this. I've shared this story
before about Billy Graham. Some of you may have
heard this. Some of you may not have. I've always
loved this story, though, because it's something
that's always stuck with me. Billy Graham, we
know, he toured a lot. He spoke at a lot of places.
He went to a lot of churches. He was always up
front and center, right? And on one particular
occasion, he went to visit a church, and for
a change, he didn't have to speak. He got to
sit there in the pews with his wife and just
enjoy the Word, right? Which for him was very
refreshing because it doesn't happen often, especially
when you're somebody of that status with that
kind of profession, right? And it came time for
the collection plate to come through. And as
the collection plate's coming, he's like, oh,
I want to give something. I got 10 bucks in my
pocket. So he reaches in there, you know, he's
like, where's it at? And he finally pulls out
some money. He's like, okay, cool, I got some
money. And the plate gets to him. And he looks
down and he realizes, oh, it's not a $10 bill,
it's a $100 bill. But he doesn't want to hold
the plate up, so he throws that bill in and he
passes the plate along. Later on, he's at home
with his wife. And he tells her what happened.
He's like, yeah, no, I wanted to throw $10 in
there, but all I had in my pocket was $100, so
I threw that in there, so I guess we're going
to get blessed for that $100 bill. She goes,
no, we're not. You're out of your mind. He's
like, what? What are you talking about? Yeah,
we are. I put $100 in the plate. She's like,
no, we're not, because that's not what was on
your heart. What was on your heart was $10. So
the blessing is for the $10. None of the rest
matters because your heart wasn't in it. You
didn't give it because you wanted to. He did
it because he felt you had to. And that's how
we come to the Lord with so much. We don't invite
people to our homes for dinner and be like, hey,
I'm glad you came. Let me get some leftovers
out. It's like, oh, that plate's still half eaten.
I'm just going to take off their saran wrap,
nuke it. Here you go. Maybe for family, like,
hey, I got some leftovers. But we don't actually
invite people over and say, hey, come on over.
We're going to eat. And then we give them scraps,
right? But that's what we're doing for God. Because
our heart's not in it. We're like, yeah, this
is good enough. We're basically fixing a meal.
We're out there cooking a steak. And then we're
giving it to the dog. And whatever is left over,
we're handing over to God. And it's not the way
it's supposed to be. As a matter of fact, in
life, it's the same way because we charge forward
with our own selfish wants. We don't even think
about God most of the time. We don't put him
first and foremost like we should until something
happens. Oh, God. Come on, really? I'm hurting
here. What's going on? I think it's Jelly Roll
has that song that just came out not that long
ago, talking about that very thing. Only time
goes to God is when something's wrong. And for
most of us, that's how we treat it. We treat
God like a Band -Aid instead of the cure. We
go out and we do something stupid, and we expect
him, we go to Daddy, fix it. It's like it's not
fixable. I told you not to do it. Why'd you do
it? Now it's destroyed. I warned you. You know,
when we give to God, we should be giving the
best of the best. And we should do it with a
happy heart because we want to, not because we
have to. We shouldn't just be holding on to things
for ourselves. I'm going to call out my wife
here. She has a wonderful voice, does she not?
She has a great voice. She's a good guitarist.
That is a blessing from God. It's a gift from
God. It has been given to her to share with the
world, to share his glory and what he's capable
of and lift up people. Because let's face it,
music is very uplifting, especially when we're
hurting, right? Now, what if she were to take
that? Like, no, no, no. That's just for me. I'm
not going to share it with anybody. The only
time I'm going to sing is when I'm in the shower
or when I'm home alone. And she could do that,
oh, I'm doing it for you, Lord. It's all for
you. But is it? Because it's not why he gave
it to her. And what he's asking for us in return
to sacrifice is a very small pittance compared
to what he's given us and what he has sacrificed
for us. and Jesus on the cross. The ultimate
sacrifice, and he's asking for very little in
return. Don't get, stay away from those addictions.
Stay away from gambling. Stay away from pornography.
Stay away from adultery. Now put those drugs
down. Don't be a drunkard. Things that we already
know. are bad for us anyway, right? But we just
can't seem to put that last thing down because
we want to hold on to it. We forget who everything
is really about. We forget what this world is
about. It's about him and not us. What made it
worse here was people, they were looking for
the fastest way to just get it done, get in and
get out, right? They just wanted it done with,
so they were careless. And this includes the
priest. They were careless in their giving and
the sacrifices that they had made, right? So
they'd go in. It's like, hey, I had this. You
know what? I don't want to have to deal with
this, so let me just come over here and give
you this instead. Okay, we're going to call it
good. Bye -bye. Think of it this way. Something's
going on with your car. You take it into the
mechanic. Yeah, it's got this strange sound,
and they see it. They know how to fix it, but
they just want to get it back out the door as
quickly as possible. Here's an example I know
some of you will know of. It's not something
that's really done anymore because cars run a
little bit different. How about when they would
go and they'd fill your exhaust system with sawdust
or something to take care of the noise and mute
it down? See, there's a smile here because Pastor
Mike here knows exactly what I'm talking about,
right? Some of those quick fixes. It's like,
you know what? This isn't going to quite work,
so let me go and weld it down. But it's not supposed
to be welded. It's supposed to be screwed. Quick
fixes. In and out. Boom. It's like, hey, God,
love you. Peace out. I'm going this way. I'm
going to the club. And people become like this
because they're selfish. They're stingy. People
become stingy. The bare bones minimum that they
get by with. It's like, you know what? I have
this. I know I'm supposed to be giving to God,
but you know what? I'm going to keep this for
me. God can make more for himself. And it's not
the way it's supposed to be. Because when we
give, it's a representation of our faith, our
trust, and our relationship with God. How much
we truly love him, how much we truly trust in
him to take care of us and to meet our needs.
Not our wants, because it's not about our wants.
It's about our needs. Everything else is just...
And it's fleeting because it will not stay. No
matter how hard you hold on to it, it will always
leave at some point. You know, and our sacrifices,
the reason why it's top shelf is because it has
to have value. Our sacrifices have to have value
to us. Maybe not to somebody else, but it has
to be valuable to us. Why? Because Jesus was
the most valuable person on this planet. And
God's son, his only son. I can't say that there
would be many in here who were told, hey, you
need to go and sacrifice your only child would
be willing to do that. Or go and sacrifice your
oldest child. That kind of hits home, doesn't
it? Because who wants to give up their child?
But God did it for us. So he's not asking us
to do that. He's just asking us, hey, find something
of value and make a sacrifice. And we make excuses.
Oh, I'm hurting financially. Okay, doesn't have
to be financial. There's other things that you
can do to give. A lot of churches, they're probably
turning over right now like, oh, no, this guy.
He didn't just say that. Yes, if you actually
read your Bible, your tithing and your gifts
and your offerings, all that kind of stuff that
they like to throw out, it's not all monetary.
And when you get down to tax brass, a lot of
it was actually a whole lot more than 10 % when
you're looking at those times. Even today, who
in here knows the cost of a horse, a cow, a sheep?
Pretty expensive. And that's just for the animal,
let alone the care for it. And I said, we need
to trust in God to meet our needs instead of
holding back the process. Because we're like,
no, I'm going to do this. And withholding from
God, we put Jesus out in the waiting room. And
we insult God. But insulting him, we still expect
him to give us the world. If I were to come up
to Nick here. Nick, not trying to embarrass you.
If I were to come out and say something horrible
to you that just absolutely insulted you, insulted
your intelligence, insulted you as a man, and
then said, hey, I need you to do this, would
you be very happy about doing what I asked you
to do? Probably not, right? Exactly. Because
I know if somebody came up to me and they insulted
me like that, I'd be like, get out of here. Pound
sand. You're lucky I don't punch you in the face
right now. Right? And all of us, We all come
to that point. I said, I wasn't trying to embarrass
you or nothing. This is an example. Thank you
for being a good sport. Love you, man. But that's
how we treat God. You know, we need to check
our attitudes when it comes to him. We need to
check our attitudes when it comes to the kingdom.
We need to check our attitudes in the way that
we do things, the way that we say things, the
way that we treat people, our actions. Do our
actions actually show love for one another as
we're commanded, right? Because we're told, love
your neighbor. Do our actions show our love for
God and for Christ? Do we sacrifice things for
him? Right? Pick up your cross daily. That's
what we're talking about with sacrifice. Because
there's certain things that we know are not good
for us, and as much as we want, we just need
to do without. When you become a parent, you
give things up for your kids. Every parent has.
Even step -parents have given up things for their
kids. Adopted parents have given things up for
their kids. Even if you haven't had a kid, but
you get a pet, you're going to make some sacrifices
for that pet, right? Why? Because you love them.
And you want to show that love. That's godly.
That's Christ -like. And we need to remember
we are ambassadors for Christ. Essentially, we're
the middle man between people and God. We're
showing them. We're making the introduction.
This is what God's about. Let me tell you about
him. Let me tell you about Jesus. Let me introduce
you to him. We're not called to make the change
in them. That's up to God. God, we just plant
the seed, right? Here you go. Make the introduction.
Then they form their relationship with them.
And every relationship is different. Just like
each and every one of us have a different relationship
with one another. And that's our attitude. And
it carries over. When we love something, it shows.
People know it. They're like, oh, this guy's
going to be great for this. It's like, I want
to talk sports. I'm going to go to this guy.
I want to talk motorcycles. I'm going to talk
to this guy. I want cars. This guy. Oh, cooking.
I'm going to talk to this girl here. Right? All
these things, but we can't do it half -heartedly.
We have to come and give the best of our time,
our money, our resources, our services. It's
the best that we have to give because those are
the things that have value. And when we fail
to do so, God tells us the same things that he
told the Malachites. I'm not pleased with you.
I'm not pleased with you. You know, if you casually
pass off sin like these priests here were, and
therefore the people that they were with, God's
not going to be happy. He's going to be very
let down. He's going to be very disappointed.
You know, the people here, they saw all these
things as a burden that they had to do. And it's
no different today. People want to go and they
want to hear things. They want to hear motivational
speakers. Hey. It feels good. It's good. Health
and wealth now. If you do A, B, C, and D, and
you believe everything you want, you're going
to be filthy rich, have perfect health. But that's
not the truth. That's not the truth. And unfortunately,
people don't want to hear the truth because the
truth is hard to hear. It's a hard pill to swallow.
When you're a follower of Christ, life is going
to be hard. Life is already hard. It doesn't
matter how much money or how much popularity
you have. Life is hard. But people will persecute
you and turn on you because of Jesus' name. Right?
Get the whole Will Smith thing. Take that name
out of your mouth. Right? I'm not going to say
take my wife's name out of your mouth, but take
my Jesus' name out of your mouth. And that's
how people respond. Oh, no, no, no, no. That's
not what I was told. My daddy said this. My daddy
said that. Joel Osteen said this. Joel Osteen
said that. Right? But it's not the truth. When
we love one another, we hold each other accountable.
We tell each other the truth no matter how much
it hurts. Because when we love somebody, you
don't want them to go astray. You don't want
them to get hurt. You want what's ultimately
the best for them. So you're going to tell them,
don't do that. You're going to get burned. Don't
do that. You're going to break a bone. Don't
do that. You're going to get hurt. The word tells
us we're going to be hated. We're going to be
persecuted for his name. But God is going to
have us face poverty. He's going to have us face
suffering. He's going to have us face hardships
and pains. And it's part of service to him. However,
what we gain in heaven far exceeds anything that
we will receive here on earth. And if God's the
most important thing in our lives, we're not
going to mind facing these things because we
know it's temporary. We're going to get through
it. It's not going to be easy, but we're going
to get through it. And we know we're going to
get through it all because God leaves us that
way to get through it. Just going to take us
to our last verse, and we're on the home stretch
here, guys, I promise. Okay, maybe if this tablet
wants to cooperate with me. And it's not. Can
you get that next slide for me, Bri? Thank you.
1 Corinthians 10, verses 12 through 14. So 1
Corinthians 10, verses 12 through 14, the word
says, Therefore, let him who thinks he stands
take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken
you except such is common to man. But God is
faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted
beyond what you are able, but this is the part
people leave off. but with the temptation will
also make the way of escape that you may be able
to bear it. It's not that he's not going to give
you something that you can't get through. That's
how people like to take this. They leave off
that last part. Oh, God's not going to give you
more than you can handle. Well, he is. He's going
to give you something more than you can handle.
but you're going to be able to handle it and
get through it provided you lean into him, that
you trust in him to get you through it. You cannot
get through it alone, but you can get through
it with God. The most hurtful things in our lives,
the easiest way to get through it, we turn to
Jesus. We try to go it alone, and we harden.
Plain and simple. God will supply our needs.
He will lead us through those hardships. He will
lead us through those temptations and get us
through to the other side. And he will ensure
that we reach that promised land. And he will
test us. He will test us. But when he tests us,
it's not for his sake. It's for us. People always
think, oh, I'm going to be tested. Oh, the devil's
testing me or whatever. You know, and it's for
their sake. No, God's going to test us, but it's
for our sake so that we can see where our weaknesses
are, where we fall short of the goal, what we
need to work on to improve, where our relationship
is with him and how much we trust him and how
much we're willing to go to him and how much
we're willing to lean into him instead of trying
to do it all on our own. Because we have all
these pains. We have all these burdens. We have
all these issues. And it hurts and it weighs
us down and it bogs us down in our life. Because
it's not meant for us to carry. It's meant for
us to take it to Jesus and leave it. Not grab
the rope and pull it back out the door with us
as we leave the temple. You take it, you leave
it to Jesus. It's not to say it's not going to
continue to hurt for a while. Why? Because wounds
need to heal. What wound has anybody had that
is healed instantly? Nobody with no wound ever.
Why? Because they take time. But it will heal.
It heals faster when you go to Jesus. The cure.
We have to remember he's our shepherd. He loves
us. He wants what's best for us. And if we'll
just let go and we'll trust him. And we go to
him. Guess what? It doesn't matter how much you've
half -hearted things in your life. It doesn't
matter how much you've fallen short or you've
been selfish. He will forgive you for all of
these things because he loves you. And he will
lead you to where you need to be. You just have
to be willing to surrender to him and give him
your very best day after day after day. And with
that said, that's going to be our time for the
week. I'm not going to hold you all up any longer.
So let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this day,
your mercy, your grace. We recognize we've fallen
short. We've looked inwardly and stared towards
the Holy Spirit. We've looked at ourselves selfishly.
We've served ourselves when we should have served
you. We ask for your forgiveness as we've fallen
short time and time again. Please guide us. Guide
us to better surrender ourselves to serve you
and to serve the world as you'd have us do in
word and in deed. Build us up so that we can
properly reach and serve others in your name
and point the way to you. We thank you for your
perfect sacrifice, which has set us free and
reminds us of why we need to make sacrifices
and do without certain things and why we need
to be willing to give of the things that we've
been blessed with in return. We thank you. for
the chance to serve. And we ask that we may never
see it as a burden, but as an opportunity and
as a blessing as it's supposed to be. In all
this, we love you, we praise you, and we thank
you for all this and more. And all these people
said, amen and amen. Remember, as we leave here
today, you are loved and you are blessed, so
go and be the church. Thank you for joining us
at Healing Scars with Pastor Burton. Until next
time, take care and God bless.